Design and Execution of Clinical Trials in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit

Due to the increasing medical complexity of patients, heterogeneity of treatment effects in broad clinical syndromes, and significant competing risks for morbidity and mortality, future clinical trials in the CICU are likely to benefit from innovative approaches to trial design, analysis, and execution. Incorporating novel trial endpoints, Bayesian analysis strategies, trial networks and clinical registries, adaptive platform trials, and comprehensive research programs into future RCTs has the potential to transform the outlook of evidence generation for the field of cardiac critical care. It will be crucial for the authors as a field to articulate priorities for future research and embrace these novel techniques that will ultimately help the authors take better care of the authors' patients in the contemporary CICU.

Automated summary

Due to the increasing medical complexity of patients, heterogeneity of treatment effects in broad clinical syndromes, and significant competing risks for morbidity and mortality, future clinical trials in the CICU are likely to benefit from innovative approaches to trial design, analysis, and execution, such as incorporating novel trial endpoints, Bayesian analysis strategies, trial networks and clinical registries, adaptive platform trials, and comprehensive research programs. It will be crucial for the authors as a field to articulate priorities for future research and embrace these novel techniques that will ultimately help take better care of patients in the contemporary CICU.